22Slides

We’ve updated our text editor to provide cleaner and easier-to-manage formatting, which should make it easier to get things looking exactly how you like. We’ve also updated our custom code editor to support the latest browser versions on desktop and mobile devices.

We just released a new streamlined ‘help’ section that features a few things we hope make finding answers to your questions a bit easier:

• Instant topic searching: Now articles are instantly sorted as you type, making it much easier to try different terms while looking for answers.
• Simplified design: Important things are now front and center, with less noise left to get in the way. Our public Q&A section has also been removed because we found that as our platform evolves, old solutions posted in this section often were no longer valid and lead customers down the wrong path.
• Better mobile support: Now looking up a quick reference via your phone is much easier, as the site now matches the rest of our ecosystem in being as responsive as possible.

22Slides has always automatically stripped image metadata (while keeping ICC profiles) to keep file size down and protect your post-processing secrets from prying eyes. But, we’ve just added a new feature to your “Settings > Image Settings” page that allows you to keep this metadata, if you like.

We take our customers’ privacy seriously and pride ourselves in being as non-intrusive as possible with our information gathering, only collecting what’s absolutely necessary to provide the services we do. We skip a lot of the analytics businesses typically perform in order to offer our customers more privacy.

We just published a new privacy policy at https://22slides.com/privacy that outlines exactly what information we collect and how it’s used.

A recent round of updates just launched and among them is the ability to control much more of the look and feel of our horizontal-scrolling image galleries.

It’s now possible to set consistent image sizes, top/bottom margins, and align images to the top, middle, or bottom of the pages, giving you the ability to further customize your website without the need for custom CSS or JavaScript code.

Five years ago today, we launched 22Slides with modest expectations and the intention of providing the best service we possibly could. Now, our clients span over 60 countries and we’re happy to be able to say we still offer the same one-on-one experience as always. Rather than celebrating too much though, we’re working hard on new stuff to be released soon, but in the meantime, here’s what’s new:

New Image Gallery Layout

We introduced a new “Blocks” image gallery layout, which allows for large thumbnails and perfectly-aligned negative space all the way around your page. Check it out by viewing one of your image galleries in your design editor.

Free Domain Names

We’re very happy to announce that our friends at Hover.com have been kind enough to offer free domain names (for one year) to 22Slides customers. So if you haven’t bought yourself a custom domain name for your website, now’s the time to do it. Go to your settings page, then click “setup a custom domain”. It’ll guide you through the process.

We made a few display and usability improvements to image gallery pages too.

• The ESC and ↓ keys will now close photo overlays/lightboxes.
• A new “X” button has been added to overlays/lightboxes too, to make it dead obvious how to close an image.
• We added support for non-square Instagram photos.
• Image descriptions now respect line breaks.

New “Updates” Page

Rather than send emails or write blog posts about every little change we make to our system, we’ve introduced a new “updates” page to the control panels. Whenever there’s a new feature or a change made, there will be a small green circle at the top of your control panel to let you know. You can click the circle and see exactly what we’ve been working on.

Image Handling Improvements

Image upload speed has been improved 300% by adding more servers to handle the files, and we now automatically wipe out all image metadata so you don’t have to worry about people decoding your files to try and find out your settings and post-processing workflow. We DO, however, still keep ICC profiles so everything is still displayed as intended.

Lots of Other Stuff

• A revised sign in page now makes it easy to find and reset your password.
• New, even stronger military-grade password encryption and an improved password reset process have been implemented.
• We added the sender’s IP address to emails sent from a contact form, so you can find information about anyone trying to send anonymous messages.
• New receipt/reminder emails are now sent each month, to ensure no one is ever paying for an account they forgot they had.
• We redesigned the “content” page, improving the appearance of your pages, as well as making the drag-and-drop functionality work much better.
• We now keep closed/cancelled accounts around for 3 months instead of the previous 2, to provide a longer grace period should a client change their mind.
• We made improvements to page redirects to help new sites retain maximum SEO performance when making major changes.
• We added a new optional EU cookies law-compliant notice for those of you in Europe, which can be found on your settings page.

We’re happy to announce our favorite domain registrar, Hover.com, is now offering free domains to 22Slides customers for one year (which is around a $15 value).

If you don’t already have a custom domain name for your website, or were thinking of registering another one, head over to the “settings” page of your control panel and redeem yours now!

We’ve had the pleasure of helping Bryan with his first photography website a few years ago, and have been blow away by his progress ever since.

He’s since grown to be one of the more popular photographers on social media with some of the most captivating landscape photos out there, earning clients like Nike, LG, and US Bank in the process.

Check out his website and Instagram account to see more of his work!

BryanDaugherty.com Instagram Twitter Tumblr

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Who are you, what have you done, and why the heck would anyone want to read this?

My name is Bryan Daugherty and I am a 25 year old adventure and lifestyle photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. I am a social influencer and have worked on global campaigns with clients such as Nike, Herschel Supply and LG.

How were you introduced to photography, and how long have you been shooting?

I first got into photography about 3 years ago when I got my first iPhone. From that moment, I was hooked. Constantly taking photos and uploading them for my friends to see. I started to build relationships with the people around me who shared the same interests. I took any advice that I could and learned as much as possible. What started out as a hobby, became my passion and job.

What kind of work is your favorite, and why?

My favorite kind of work to do right now is product shots. I am pretty new to it and its a challenge for me.

Which equipment could you not live without?

My current camera is a Canon 5D Mark III. I have 4 lenses: a Canon 24mm f1.4L, Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art, Canon 50mm f1.4 and a Canon 70-200 f2.8L II IS. My favorite lens is definitely the 24mm because you can shoot landscapes and portraits with it.

If you could have done one thing different with your career so far, what would it be?

I would have started shooting at a younger age. I didn’t start shooting until I was already in college so it made me question what I wanted to do all the time.

What other photographers’ work do you enjoy the most?

My favorite photographers right now are Ravi Vora (@Ravivora), Scott Borrero (@scottborrero), Alex Strohl (@alexstrohl) and Sam Fan (@samalive). They are constantly pushing the boundaries of creativity and telling a story.

If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t a photographer, I would love to be in the advertising/marketing world. I’ve had a small glimpse into what that’s like and it’s something I may pursue in the future.

What was your single biggest obstacle in turning your hobby into a career, and how did you beat it?

My biggest obstacle in my career was making the decision to go full time freelance. I recently made this decision and I had to choose between continuing my education or sticking with my passion. At this point in my career, the benefits of going full time freelance outweighed those of continuing my education.

What are you thoughts on photographers using services like Instagram to post their work?

I think Instagram is a great way to stay inspired and share work with others. In 2012 I decided to download Instagram and back then the app was much different and it was not nearly as popular as it is now but the idea was the same. The thought of being able to capture a moment, post it and get instant feedback from a community of photographers and friends is what really drew me to the app. In July of 2014, I received a direct message from the @instagram account informing me that they put me on the Suggested User list. In the 2 weeks that I was on the Suggested User list, I went from 4,000 followers to 46,000. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this has had a massive impact on my career. I work with agencies to create sponsored posts and content for brands on Instagram as well as work on global campaigns.

What’s your photo editing software and/or process of choice?

I use Photoshop and Lightroom. Lightroom for basic edits/tweaks and photoshop for retouching. I have my own presets that I made based off of a few of the VSCO film presets.

Domains are confusing. There’s no reason a normal person should have to worry about CNAME records or things like that.

This is why we’ve partnered with Hover.com to provide 1-click domain setups for your 22Slides site. Now, instead of carefully editing your DNS records yourself to get your website to work, you need only to click a button and it’s all done fore you.

We’re constantly working to increase the value our service provides to our clients, and today we’re happy to announce the addition of PayPal “Buy Now” buttons!

You can now quickly assign prices to images on your site to sell things like prints and collect payments via your PayPal account.

To try it out, find the “PayPal” section in your “Add-ons” page of your control panel and enter your PayPal email address. Then you can “flip” any image on your website over by clicking the icon at the bottom right of its thumbnail and enter pricing options there. That’s it!